Rosetta: Historic Landing of Philae on Comet 67P

[Rogue]

The Philae lander from the Rosetta space mission is now on the surface of Comet 67P

Video: Everything you need to know

[Rogue]

The final steps of Philae’s descent towards Comet 67P

[Kaere]

Amazing, isn't it?

[Rockhopper]

Indeed Ka. Getting it right is like shooting flies in a dark stadium!

Tim.

[Stargate]

Kind of neat, however not sure of purpose.

[Lenzabi]

It is to answer questions as to where so much of water on Earth came from. Not all have agreed if the water came from comets that struck the early Earth or not.

[Rockhopper]

Hey Len doncha know that the Big Fella put it there!

Tim.

[Stargate]

Len, I don't like been one sided, however some of the questions possed by science is sometime secondary. A more potent question in my view is how to not contaminate the water we have on the planet. The question of how earth got its water is irrelivant at the moment. It is a nice achievement in terms of technology but not in terms of purpose.

[Lenzabi]

I suspect that some body has the wacked idea to drag comets to earth orbit for breaking apart and processing new water

[Rockhopper]

There is talk of mining comets and asteroids for minerals like iridium and neodymium which are very rare on Earth.

[Rogue]

Spaceship That Landed On Comet Goes Dark
Reuters
11/15/2014 1:03 pm

(Reuters) - A pioneering robotic spacecraft shut down on Saturday after radioing results of its first and probably last batch of scientific experiments from the surface of a comet, scientists said.

Batteries aboard the European Space Agency’s Philae comet lander drained, shutting down the washing machine-sized probe after an adventurous and largely unscripted 57-hour mission.

Carried aboard the orbiting Rosetta mothership, Philae floated to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Thursday, but failed to deploy anchoring harpoons.

Upon contacting the comet’s unexpectedly hard surface, it bounced back up into space twice then came to rest at a still-unknown location about 1 km (0.6 mile) from its original target.

Photos and other data relayed by Philae show it finally landed against a cliff or crater wall where there was little sunlight to recharge its batteries. Racing against the clock, scientists activated a series of automated experiments, the first to be conducted from the surface of a comet.

Before dying, Philae defied the odds and radioed its science results back to Earth for analysis.

Its last task was to reposition itself so that as the comet soars toward the sun, Philae’s batteries may recharge enough for a follow-on mission. “Perhaps when we are nearer to the sun we might have enough solar illumination to wake up the lander and re-establish communication,” spacecraft operations manager Stephan Ulamec said in a statement.

Scientists are particularly interested in learning about the chemical composition of any organic molecules in samples drilled out from the comet’s body.

Comets are believed to be pristine remnants from the formation of our solar system some 4.6 billion years ago. They contain rock and ice that have preserved ancient organic molecules like a time capsule and may provide insight into how the planets and life evolved.

Philae's drill descended more than 25 cm (10 inches) on Friday, penetrating the comet’s surface.

Rosetta in August became the first spacecraft to put itself into orbit around a comet. It will accompany the comet as it travels toward the sun for at least another 13 months.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/15/philae-comet-batteries_n_6164154.html

[Rockhopper]

Yep the batteries have died. It apparently landed in a crater and the cliff blocked out the sun to it's panels.

Sad really!

Tim.

[Rogue]

Yes sad, great achievement but solar power turned out to be a bit of a fizzer.

[Agartha]

Yeah, you would think the battery would last longer, eh?
But it's still amazing what they've done, sending a spacecraft to intercept a comet 300 million miles away!! Who knows what's next.

Now we have to wait for the results, see if the blocks of life are there.

I toast to the success of this mission thinking of all those that are Europhobics: this couldn't have been achieved if several European countries wouldn't have worked together.

[Stirky]

I did comment on this yesterday??

Anyway, my missing post said that they released an audio recording of the sound the comet actually emits, sounds like a weird boiling kettle. Very interesting.

[Agartha]

I thought the same,Stirks..... then I realized there is another thread on Rosetta where we had posted.

[Stirky]

Hahaha lol, that explains it Thought my post had disappeared! I did post in a thread the other day and the post decided to disappear on me instead of posting, and couldn't be bothered to rewrite it, thought it had happened again

[Rogue]

I was wondering if this could happen...

Scientists 'confident' comet lander will wake up

Tuesday Nov 18, 2014

There is a strong chance Europe's comet lander will wake up from hibernation as it nears the sun, raising hopes for a second series of scientific measurements from the surface next year, scientists involved in the mission said Monday.

The Philae lander, which became the first spacecraft to touch down on a comet Wednesday, has already sent reams of data back to Earth that scientists are eagerly examining. But there were fears its mission would be cut short because it came to rest in the shadow of a cliff.

Shortly before its primary battery ran out, the European Space Agency decided to attempt to tilt the lander's biggest solar panel toward the sun - a last-ditch maneuver that scientists believe may have paid off.

"We are very confident at some stage it will wake up again and we can achieve contact," Stephan Ulamec, the lander manager, told The Associated Press.

That should happen next spring, when Philae and the comet it is riding on - called 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko - get closer to the sun, warming up a secondary battery on board. A few days of sunshine on the solar panels should be enough to charge the battery sufficiently to conduct science runs, said Ulamec.

Before they can say for certain if they'll be able to restore contact with Philae, scientists first need to find out where on the 4-kilometre-wide comet the washing machine-sized lander is, he added.

New pictures released Monday offer very good clues about where it has come to rest.

The high-resolution images taken from Philae's mother ship Rosetta show the lander descending to the comet and again after its first and second bounce. These were caused by the lander's failure to deploy its downward thrusters and harpoons.

Scientists at the German Aerospace Center, DLR, said Monday that an initial review of data the lander sent back 500 million kilometres to Earth showed the comet's surface is much tougher than previously assumed. There's also evidence of large amounts of ice beneath the lander.

Scientists are still waiting to find out whether Philae managed to drill into the comet and extract a sample for analysis.

Material beneath the surface of the comet has remained almost unchanged for 4.5 billion years, so the samples would be a cosmic time capsule that scientists are eager to study.

One of the things they are most excited about is the possibility that the mission might help confirm that comets brought the building blocks of life -- including water -- to Earth.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11360354

[Agartha]

I believe it can happen, it's a machine after all... a bit of sun energy and it could come alive again.
But at least it was able to send this before it went to sleep:

Rosetta's companion lander made the discovery after sampling and analyzing the comet's atmosphere.

While Philae's final touchdown on the comet's surface was ultimately successful, its eventual position meant that its solar panels were not receiving enough light to keep it going and that within a few days it would need to go in to sleep mode to keep it alive until the sun was in a more favorable position.

To make the most out of the time available to them the mission team spent the better part of 60 hours conducting experiments and returning as much data as possible before the batteries died.

Among those results was the discovery of organic molecules in the atmosphere just above the comet's surface. This find could indicate that the building blocks of life from which we are all based were originally brought to the Earth by comets much like this one.

"We have collected a great deal of valuable data, which could only have been acquired through direct contact with the comet," said scientific director Ekkehard Kuhrt.

"Together with the measurements performed by the Rosetta orbiter, we are well on our way to achieving a greater understanding of comets."

"Their surface properties appear to be quite different than was previously thought."

http://spaceflightnow.com/2014/11/18/philae-finds-comet-harbors-organics/

[Rogue]

Canada's Vast 'Sudbury Basin' Was Created By Comet, Study Says
The Huffington Post | By David Freeman
Posted: 11/18/2014 9:38 am EST

What kind of object punched a huge hole in Ontario?

Since the 1960s, scientists have believed that the Sudbury Basin, a vast crater in Northern Ontario, was created by the impact of some very large object. But it wasn't clear whether the object was a rocky asteroid or an icy comet--until now.

According to a new study by researchers in Canada and Ireland, it was a comet.

The basin measures about 62 kilometers long by 32 kilometers wide by 15 kilometers deep, making it the second-biggest impact crater on Earth after South Africa's Vredefort crater. With an estimated age of 1.85 billion years, the basin is also one of the oldest impact craters in the world.

The study--a detailed geochemical analysis of 69 rock samples taken from the area--showed that whatever caused the basin vaporized almost completely on impact, according to a written statement released by Trinity College Dublin. Since an asteroid big enough to have created the crater likely wouldn't have vaporized to that extent, the researchers concluded that the "comet-as-culprit" scenario was by far the more likely one.

"Of course, the Rosetta mission that has been in the news lately will (hopefully) provide unprecedented information about the structure and chemistry of comets," Petrus said in an email to The Huffington Post, "so we are waiting anxiously to hear their results!"

The study will be published in the Feb. 1 issue of the journal Terra Nova.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/18/sudbury-basin-comet-impact-crater_n_6168408.html

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